Wednesday, March 4, 2015

The Contributions of Women During World War I

Liberty's calling, what's your response?

The progression of women’s roles drastically transformed from the
pre-1914 era and blossomed into a period of liberation after the conclusion of
World War I.Prior to the Great War, women either lived and worked
within the home, served as domestic hands, taught as educators or where trained
to assist editorial or administrative offices as secretaries. However, once war
sparked in August 1914, the traditionally confiding “woman’s place within the
home” altered radically along with the subsequent innovations and societal shifts
emerging from the span of World War I.

In the Edwardian era, a woman’s duty consisted primarily of taking care
of the home, raising children and participating in the community. Yet, it was
rather common for middle-class women to work in factories or on the farm. The
Great War demanded an extravagant toll of men, creating an economic gap which
women began to fill. As women assumed roles traditionally barred to their
gender, their career opportunities and political influence held considerable sway. Many transformed from into fully fledged nurses,
journalists and public speakers who rallied unions, political parties and crowds to bring a solution to the needless bloodshed. An example of Edwardian
literature and a product of pre-war mentalities, Anne of Green Gables, a
piece of literature written by L.M. Montgomery has been adapted to the screen.
Within the film, Anne shines as a confident and capable woman working as an
author and teacher in the WWI era who ends up serving as a Red Cross
volunteer, journalist and pacifistic advocate while seeking to reunite with her
fiancé, Gilbert Blythe, a doctor stationed on the Western Front.

A clip detailing Anne's role as a journalist in Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing StoryAnne's video reveals how
journalism and the power of female speakers lead to organized protests which impacted the suffragette movement and added validity to the
public opinion of women in the realm of politics and social affairs.

Propaganda showing women in different sectors of the war effort

As the government hired and recruited women to partner alongside male
soldiers, a significant force of women joined agricultural, industrial and
fiscal ventures in order to support the war effort from home. Though women began
to replace men in hard labor, such as in the mining, farming and factory industries, most appeared eager to engage in the conflict by enrolling as nurses
and war correspondents, using their words and compassion to aid the bleeding
and broken hearted.

The practice of “total war” demanded a mobilization of a
nation’s entire resources, a financial method of funding the war which allowed
for women to adopt economic positions previously limiting female access. For
example, The Land Army took thousands of women from the cities and put them to
work as “farmerettes” who worked and were paid equally as farmers, wore pants
and proved to be such a successful development that the WLA was resurrected
during World War II. The war’s impact on their lives most visibly is seen
through the absence of male citizens. With the lack of this labor force,
national organizations launched to which women clamored in the hopes of serving alongside their male counterparts in order to support their nation by front-line work and
through non-combative vantage points.

With the introduction of conscription in 1916, women joined
the labor force while others stayed domestic; instead opting to knit socks,
raise money by buying war bonds, practicing frugality and through charitable activities. Wealthy
women began to run their estates in place of their husband which led to estates
being opened as hospitals or orphanages.

Happy Farmerettes of the WLA

In early 1915, women that went abroad
to serve worked slightly removed from combat yet still in orderly positions
such as medical, police and firefighting task forces. However, their
capabilities and the demands of war increased their abilities to serve as
ambulance drivers, convoys, medical personnel in the actual trenches and
journalist correspondents. Seen as the angels of the battlefield, thousands of
women served as nurses and bravely faced bombardments, disease and enemy
attacks while aiding their distressed patients. As well as becoming nurses,
laborers & members of the Land Army, women even volunteered as air force
pilots and surgeons!

Nurses fought not only to save lives but surely saw their
service as a means to establish a sense of independence and professionalism.The creation of the Woman’s Armed Forces formed specific roles for women to
perform in war zones, such as driving vehicles, providing medical aid,
entertaining soldiers through song and dance, serving as base staff and cooks,
waitresses, clerks, and journalists; each embracing the innovation to utilize
their new found skills. By 1918, millions of women were involved in the war
effort.

On November 11, 1918, Armistice Day concluded the tremors
initiated by ethnic turmoil in Austria-Hungary four years prior. The war greatly elevated a woman’s
station in life yet women were expected to return to the domestic sphere so as to return
men’s rightful positions in the work force. Yet the effects of World War I could not be so easily undone. Many young women continued work in male-oriented sectors - secretarial work being the one in which women came to dominate. Fashion changed
too due to fabric shortages, which hiked women’s dresses up from their ankles
and inspired the wearing of trousers and the trend of short hair just in time for the Jazz Age.
However, the most profound impact of WWI for women was in the form of a piece
of 1919 legislation which forbid employment discrimination upon the basis of
gender as well as the powerful legacy heralded by the Suffragette movement. The
organized masses of seasoned women, young and old, having served faithfully out
of nationalistic pride and morality, now sought their own liberation. The
feminist movement had built momentum and the international conflict poised Europe as well as America for radical change. With the US Constitution's implementation of the 19th Amendment, women’s suffrage triumphed in the form
of the right to vote in 1920.

Conclusively, women performed a variety of diverse services throughout
World War I and their involvement gleaned much reward. Despite prejudice and
difficulty, many women saw wage increase, access to a wider pool of occupations
and education which greatly increased their own societal independence and
financial stability. The endeavors of the Suffragist movement fostered Edwardian
women to throw off repressive patriarchal structures and societal norms in
favor of pursuing equality before the law in the realms of political and economic
reform. Feminism, existing prior to WWI, was immensely enhanced by the 1914
conflict which, without the intention of doing so, shaped and cultivated gender
equality and further established the authentic upholding of Classical
Liberalism which validates the intrinsic value and sociopolitical rights of the
individual.

Suggested Reading:

Adie, Katie.Fighting on the Home Front: The Legacy of Women in World War One. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2013.Atwood, Kathryn J.Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics (Women of Action). Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Review Press, 2014.Hallett, Christine E.Veiled
Warriors: Allied Nurses of the First World War. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2014.Macdonald, Lyn.The
Roses of No Man's Land. London: Joseph, 1980.Newman, Vivien.We Also
Served: The Forgotten Women of the First World War. Barnsley, South
Yorkshire: Pen and Sword History, 2014.Nicholson, Virginia.Singled
Out: How Two Million British Women Survived Without Men After the First World
War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.Zeinert, Karen.Those
Extraordinary Women: WWI. Brookfield, Connecticut: Millbrook Press, 2001.